


Luna Aeterna

by Altraya



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Body Horror, Gen, Heavy Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:00:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9669917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altraya/pseuds/Altraya
Summary: It seemed like Noctis could not stop failing Luna with every step since Altissia. The "gift" Ardyn has waiting for him in Zegnautus Keep makes that painfully clear. An alternate fight towards the end of that dungeon.





	

"Wow, what a hangar," Prompto mused as he stiffly followed Noctis.

"Yeah. And the central elevator is this way," Noctis explained, keeping his pace slow for Prompto and Ignis. He was anxious to get through Zegnautus Keep, to take out Ardyn, to set things right, but not so anxious as to leave his friends behind.

Not again.

Approaching the long door, the sound of metal scraping on concrete had them turning around, and Ardyn's voice filled the air. "You're getting so close, so let's revisit one more memory, shall we?" the man teased, and as the new enemy rounded the corner, Noctis missed the following words, "...Of course even memories decay with time."

"Is that...?" Prompto asked weakly, his voice trembling.

"...Lady Lunafreya," Gladio's voice was breathless with shock.

It was, at the very least, what remained of her. She looked very much like a corpse from the ocean, and daemonification seemed to have fused her with some of the sea creatures that had feasted on her body whenever she was turned. Half of her face was somehow completely in tact, except for her skin being paler than usual. Not enough for the time in the ocean that showed on the rest of her, and it seemed she was deliberately preserved in such a way.

That half of her face that looked so like her was contorted in pain and miserably side by side with a demonic claw reaching out from where her left eye ought to be, all oozing black and white and rotting. She reached with an arm twisted by wretched magics, the black of scourge dripping like blood from where shells and starfish stabbed through and bloated her arm. "No... tis... I... sorry... Kill... me...," the body barely strangled out before it paused in place and let out a roar of rage and pain.

Gasping in shock, Ignis turned towards where he thought his king to be, "Noctis...?"

"Noct?" Prompto chimed in with fear, turning around and getting a look at him.

Noctis was paralyzed with horror. His eyes were wide and tears streaked down his cheeks. "Not... like this...," he choked, shaking his head, and he took a rigid step forward. "Luna...," he whimpered, his voice broken.

The Daemon-Luna lashed out, a flash of black magic launching from her more powerful looking arm, one which seemed to have fully taken to its daemon transformation in a horrific spiked lobster claw. Gladio lunged in front of Noctis, a large shield appearing on his arm in a bright flash of blue, just in time to block the spell. It sent him skidding backwards and his arm was numb.

"Noctis! Snap out of it!" he growled, glancing back.

Noctis fell to his knees. He could hear his friends struggling, heard Gladio cursing him out and ordering the others to pull him aside, for Ignis to get him to focus while the other two kept the powerful daemon busy. Daemon. Daemon.

That's all they kept calling her, refusing to use her name anymore.

He couldn't do it, though. All those others, he could brush them off. Unknown faces he couldn't have cured anyways. But this was so much different. He couldn't fight Luna, he couldn't kill Luna. Not even like this, enraged, in pain, mostly daemon, but still enough of her remained. What if she could be saved? He would never forgive himself if he killed her when he was so close to the Crystal that might be able to save her. There was no basis for that thought, but he clung to it anyways.

"Prompto!" Gladio shouted, rushing to cover the gunner as he fell to the ground. Daemon-Luna stood over him, his blood dripping from her claw, and she used that claw to block the incoming downswing, Gladio's greatsword smashing her down to the ground.

She rushed away and Gladio took that time to use a hi-potion on Prompto, pulling him to his feet. Spotting the enemy, Gladio cursed and shouted, rushing forward to guard Ignis and Noctis once more. He had expected another single shot. A wave of dark energy burst out from her instead, sending him flying back and knocking Ignis over. Noctis was slammed into the wall at his back and he hardly reacted, his eyes dull and face aged with pain and despair, gaze fixated on her and following her lazily.

A warmth seemed to wrap around him, and his view of the monstrosity was blurred. "Luna...," he whispered again, looking up at the spirit smiling so sadly down to him.

"It is just my body, dear Noctis. My soul lives on to be with you when it is time. But now is not that time. Fight, Noctis."

"I can't," he gasped, broken, unfocused. The fight continued on around him with him no longer the wiser. Gladio and Prompto were having trouble, and Ignis yelled in his ear without him even noticing anymore. He was completely enveloped in the sunny glow of her spirit as she gracefully knelt before him and set glimmering hands on top of his.

"There is nothing to save there, Noctis. Nothing left to protect."

"Nothing...?" he asked, pleading, the last thread of hope he could cling to.

"Nothing," she stated sadly, and he felt that warmth on his cheek and her forehead pressed to his. "It is a defamation of my body, and nothing more."

His lips pressed together and there was a hard glint to his eyes. A defamation. An atrocity. Something that should not exist. Something that needed to be destroyed, to grant her peace. But still, it's voice...

No matter.

It was a strange thing to consider, but he trusted his vision of her spirit more than the voice of her daemon infected body. She was warmth and peace in her touch and strength and duty in her words. The words could have been Ardyn controlling the daemon, for all that he knew. He had no idea what the man's powers were. Or if he was even a man at all.

And even if it had been Luna when it spoke, there was no sign of her anymore in the monster that was running his dear friends ragged. He stood up slowly, his voice weak and rough, "Sorry, Ignis. I'll take care of it now."

"I am sorry, Noct..."

"Yeah. Me too."

Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, Noctis took a step forward, head held proudly high, and then he warped across the hangar with his sword to land a surprise blow against its armored back. The daemon screamed in pain and Noctis could barely hear Luna's voice at all in the howling. He summoned the Trident of the Oracle, holding it in his hands and bowing his head solemnly.

"Sorry, Luna...," he whispered, talking to the weapon. "Even in death, you keep having to bail me out. But it's my turn now, right?"

The daemon had little interest in his words and tried to snap him in half with its claw. He warped away instantly, appearing high in the air above. Trident grasped firmly, he lunged down and pierced where water-decayed flesh met eldritch carapace, a sickening crack and tear as he pulled the shell from the body and it roared in pain.

Panting from the drain the weapon took on his life force, he stabbed at the screaming creature, warping around it, the power of the trident making it so each short lived magic shadow of his continued the assault, hitting it on all sides with the weapon of the Oracle. It burst into shadows with one last scream and Noctis stood there numbly, staring until every last speck of darkness disappeared.

The trident fell from his grip and clattered loudly in the hangar, the only sound since the screaming had stopped. Noctis fell to his knees as the weapon disappeared in shattering blue. "Luna...," he mumbled, reaching out his hand and setting it on the cold concrete ground. There was no sign of the horrific body that had fallen there moments before. "...I'm sorry. I failed to save you, in every way possible. I couldn't even, save your body..."

"That's right," Ardyn's voice sounded over the speakers. "You couldn't save the sweet Lady Lunafreya, and oh, look what she became. But you sure took care of her, didn't you? I'm so proud." The last sentence was whispered so cruelly, Noctis shivered at his tone.

Suddenly there was a warmth at his back and glimmering gold arms wrapped across his shoulders. He felt the ghost of a kiss against his temple and whispered words, "You've never once failed me, Noctis."

He wished he could believe that.

But he couldn't even try.

Luna was gone as quickly as she had arrived, and daemons were appearing all over the place. Noctis rose to his feet, his friends gathered at his side, and he turned to face where they needed to go. Jaw set tight, the Sword of the Father appeared in his hand and he raised it overhead like a proud banner. It was a silent battlecry and his friends readied at his side, Ignis a beat behind the others when he felt the shift.

"Time to reclaim what's ours."

**Author's Note:**

> A heartbreaking prompt from Tumblr that I finally got around to doing and it BROKE MY HEART. I CRIED LIKE 5 SEPARATE TIMES WRITING THIS AND IT ISN'T LONG. WHY.


End file.
